NJPW (Discussion)

[Tigerkinney]

Something dawned on me when watching today's show....

Isn't it about time they forked out the license money for Immigrant Song, so Makabe isn't coming out to silence (or his generic dub theme) on New Japan World- they seem to have done so for everyone else of importance. It's not going to suddenly turn him into a super worker, but it's a badass theme and would ultimately help with his presentation to new fans- because with the dub theme or even worse silence, they're giving off the impression of him being pretty much a 'JAG'.

Another observation I had is that Oka fit in really well in his match with all of the 'New Japan Dad's', because even though he's at least 20 years younger than all of them, he looks about 45 himself!

[mrjoshdude]

Honestly they could just throw Kitamura and Oka into the G1 and not only would do fine they'd have some of the best matches of the tournament. I've never seen two young lions so ready for the main roster so quickly. I forget a lot of the time when I'm watching them that they're even young lions at all. Kawato is on a whole 'nother level too but for him the fact that he is a young lion is key to his charm. The future looks very very bright for New Japan right now. With White, Komatsu, and Tanaka ready to return in the next year or so and Umino/Yagi in the wings too, New Japan is ready for anything.

[Danwaka]

I expect Kitamura to be in it next year. Nagata needs replacing for one.

[Frank Olson]

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who enjoyed the Suzuki/YOSHI-HASHI match from yesterday's show. Yes, there was too much Suzukigun crap (one or two interference spot followed by a brawl with CHAOS would've sufficed) but the Korakuen crowd was super into YOSHI-HASHI and I thought there was some really good drama down the stretch. That endless Butterfly Lock spot really got me. By the third or fourth time that YOSHI-HASHI pulled Suzuki away from the ropes I was thinking “holy shit, they're really putting the title on YOSHI-HASHI.” But it was not meant to be.

[LK3185]

Are we getting Omega vs. Cody at WrestleKingdom?

[throwstuff165]

Very good show, expect tomorrow's to be even better.

Kind of surprised to see Elgin go out in the first round of the tourney. He was my pick to win it all.

[KLC]

Are we getting Omega vs. Cody at WrestleKingdom?

If I had to take a guess, Final Battle instead. I think Omega v Ibushi is penciled in for WrestleKingdom.

[Frank Olson]

I really enjoyed the first Long Beach show. There were definitely some embarrassing issues on the production end, with blown entrance music cues and missed shots and things of that nature. And JR was not great on commentary. I can sort of understand mixing up which Briscoe Brother is which, but confusing BUSHI and EVIL, who look absolutely nothing alike, is just embarrassing. He seemed lost and confused at a number of other points as well. I know that some people don't like Kevin Kelly, but that guy does his homework and is always prepared, and JR just seemed totally out of his element for a lot of this show. But overall it was a fun show that I think will prove to be memorable.

The multi-man tags were fun and more eventful than they often are on regular New Japan shows. I really enjoyed the segment in the opener where everybody on the CHAOS side had trouble taking down Bad Luck Fale. We got just a tease of Hiromu vs. Dragon Lee in the lucha match, but their brief segment together was really exciting as always. It was fun seeing Jay White, David Finlay, Yohei Komatsu, and Sho Tanaka all together again in their 8-man tag, and also funny to hear the crowd completely shit on Yoshitatsu and Billy Gunn (hopefully the Ass Man is ready to work heel tomorrow, because he seemed sort of blindsided by the reaction he got tonight).

The IWGP US Title Tournament got off to a great start with the first round matches. Lethal and Page was the worst of the matches as expected, but aside from a very awkward botch on a Lethal Injection (a move that honestly looks kind of stupid even when it's hit properly) it was a solid bout that did a good job of playing up Lethal's rib injury. Sabre twisting Juice into a pretzel was nasty and fantastic. Both guys seemed really fired up and I'm looking forward to their rematch in the G1. Naito and Ishii have had better matches before, but that's a pretty high bar to clear and I thought they still wound up having the second best match of the night. I love Naito's cocky overhead slaps to Ishii's bald head. Omega and Elgin was the highlight of the night in a fast-paced, high intensity match. I think their sprint from last year's G1 is their best match together, but this was pretty damn good. I'm pumped for Ishii/Sabre and Lethal/Omega tomorrow. Obviously Omega will beat Lethal and any combination of Omega against Ishii or Sabre is going to make an awesome main event.

The Tag Title match was my least favorite of the night. I love War Machine and I like G.O.D., but their matches against each other haven't done a lot for me. This particular one being a garbage brawl didn't help matters. I just can't get into matches that prominently involve people hitting each other with garbage cans and driving each other through tables. Both teams worked hard but this type of match just isn't my thing. Did the title switch at Dominion happen just so these Long Beach shows could have one title change?

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality level of the main event. I am not a Cody fan by any means, but I thought he handled himself pretty well here. Okada was definitely steering the ship, but Cody didn't have any major fuck ups and he seemed to find his footing pretty quickly. The crowd being so heavily pro-Okada and anti-Cody definitely helped give the match a nice atmosphere that I wasn't fully expecting. Not a Match of the Year Candidate or anything like that, but a perfectly solid main event and another strong title defense in Okada's ridiculously awesome reign.

[mezomi]

I'm exited for Kenny Omega vs Cody which is destined to happen at Power Struggle because, when else would be more fitting?

[suplexberry]

Started out with the English commentary but turned it off after like 7mins into the first match, which was a great decision. Japanese commentary had Ibushi as a guest and your usual suspects, including a fired up Nogami calling the main event. It was a great show, technical issues aside. Tags were fun and the tournament matches were all as good as expected. Fans were into it and the crowd seemed unique and decisively American with the chants and reactions. It was also cool to hear Japanese announcers parse the chants and react to them. Just a cool mix, American crowds but Japanese announcing.

I got especially into Juice vs Zack and was happy to note I am not the only one. I was gutted that Juice lost but I think he will eventually climb the mountain and I eagerly await his eventual US title reign. Good to see the local fans behind him, too.

Naito vs Ishii was brilliant as usual and I think Omega and Elgin outdid themselves in this match, which is saying a lot. I felt bad for Mike because Kenny was such a crowd fave but I think he will still play an important role in this new US spinoff.

Main event had me on the edge of my seat. Not an all time classic by any means but good match, great story, right winner. Edit: one big criticism is Gedo cuts an English promo but at no point says "motherfucker". His whole promo should've been like "This motherf--" (points at Okada, drops mic)

[Empiresk]

The show was pretty good. Felt like New Japan B PPV headlined by the IC or NEVER title with some extra singles matches. Looking forward to tomorrow's show.

Production was not very good at all. Fucking up the LIJ's entrance, ZSJ coming out to the wrong music and Ishii and Naito's music clashing whilst the generic dubbed music was played over many times for no reason.

I have grown to like Kelly and Callis over the months and finding out it was JR and and Barnett was a major disappointment. Barnett was fine for the most part, dropping WAR references like Mauro but JR was trash. Refusing to name the CMLL guys as he didn't know them apart, calling half the under card wrong names whilst resorting to the old cliches in the big matches. I hope it is Kelly and Callis tomorrow and JR and Barnett are recording on tape for AXS.

ZSJ vs Juice was great. Shows that New Japan know how to book ZSJ for the G1 and Juice can legit be a star as a babyface as one of the most compelling guys to watch in 2017. I knew the crowd would be good for the final matches the way they were reacting to ZSJ's offence. It was a New Japan crowd rather than a ROH crowd so that delighted me.

Naito and Ishii was very good whilst Omega vs Elgin was match of the night. Like others, I felt sorry for Elgin as the star power or Omega completely eclipsed him but in the ring he matched him move for move. I know on the Flagship people were predicting a low finish in the G1, but they have to see that Elgin still has major potential in both Japan and the US for the company. Hopefully he gets re-heated as it has been so disappointing to see him do nothing in New Japan since a 5 Star match against Naito.

Cody vs Okada was fine but 10/10 for New Japan for making a compelling match. The towel call back and Bullet Club dissension really did help it out and made it good main event when it could have easily been overshadowed by Omega vs Elgin.

[BackLash]

I'm so glad I watched this, by far the worst thing that happened is when Billy Gunn dropped Tanahashi and a handful of minor botches throughout. Chaos vs. Bullet Club was amazing with bodies flying everywhere with even Yujiro getting a great Rick Rude pop and Fale dominating. The Luchas y Liger vs. LIdJ match was decent, loved the pop Liger got from the crowd. While the worst of their matches so far, the Guerillas vs. War Machine was still beautiful in its brutality and I love that Chase Owens didn't get left out of the show. The Tanahashi/Gunn 8-Man was pretty cool, Tatsu looked decent and kept pace before eating the pin, KUSHIDA was a pretty good Morton here and I love the build to Tana/Gunn tomorrow (yet again, I wish the Ass didn't drop the Ace). The best moment came when Sho, Yo, Jay, and Finlay reunited (and it felt so good) and kicked ass, even though Finlay got the short end of the stick.

The US tournament as a whole was great, sadly Hangman and Lethal was just a match, but it was solid and sold Lethal's rib injury so it's a good floor. Great stuff from Sabre and Juice as they were a reverse David vs. Goliath with Juice having the size and the heart but Sabre just being dominant for most of the contest. Naito and Ishii was probably the best-paced match on the show as these guys had such great chemistry. A fun, athletic, and painful-looking bout. Omega and Elgin delivered for me and the (mostly-respectful) crowd HATED Elgin because he was facing the Cleaner. That match was action pack and hard hitting so I was a fan, though I wish Big Mike would have won.

The main event will most likely go down and the best singles match Cody will ever have and is a great feather in the cap of Okada on his dominant title reign. While slower than I hoped it would be, especially in the beginning, Cody's heel work and massive heat from the crowd gave the match a more special feeling. I loved the various move reversals and call backs and the action was good throughout. I loved the dissension being teased in the Bullet Club and I absolutely loved how the ending went down. In the end, one could think that Okada can have a **** with a styrofoam cup or Cody can step up and have **** matches with the best talent in the world. While not MotY, this was a great main event.

[JB Gremlin]

I enjoyed the show a lot, watched in Japanese and will try to rewatch the top three matches tonight in English before tonight to see how they did. In terms of the "Authentic" New Japan experience that was hotly debated when the cards were announced I feel like night one was successful in giving that to an American audience, the undercard was a mix between enjoyable-but-forgettable and just forgettable while the second half delivered with 2 excellent matches and a storyline driven main event, isn't that more or less what they've been doing all year?

So, the main event, firstly, at 4.30 in the morning UK time I felt they worked too slow of a pace pretty much the whole match, it led to a fairly weak first few minutes of the closing run where people didn't buy into it quite so much because they hadn't gone too hard yet. At the same time though Cody felt like he had exhausted much of his move set fairly early on in the match, hence the finisher stealing exchange, because he didn't have much left to do, I was surprised by the lack of reaction to the Bloody Sunday (But then Omega didn't get a lot for the Ibushi call out either). Cody was fine in the match, he clearly couldn't keep up when it got the more intricate exchanges in the last few minutes but on the whole I enjoyed the storytelling and it was another good feather in Okada's 2017 cap, in retrospect I think Cody was a good pick for this main event as it certainly created an interesting dynamic and I bit on more than one of Cody's near falls. ****

Elgin/ Omega was clearly match of the night, that one V-Trigger spot had me jumping up and down at silly o'clock in the AM. And they'll rematch in a couple of weeks? I can't wait. LOVED IT! ****1/2

[Rainmaker_F7]

For whatever reason I decided to watch this with JR on commentary. Boy was that a mistake, he was awful. Not only did he not sound like someone actually excited by what's happening, but mistaking Ospreay with ZSJ, Omega with Cody and such is just ridiculous. Come on.

There were some production issues early in the show, but it didn't really bother me tbh, shit happens, it was nothing major, hopefully they avoid this stuff tonight though.

First half of the show was good. Really enjoyed the opener, even though I have seen it all before, this felt like a great way to open the tour. 3.5 snowflakes for this.

LIJ vs CMLL guys was solid but underwhelming, aside of Lee and Hiromu doing their shit. Hopefully the 10 man tag tonight is better than this. And LIJ cheating all the time while CMLL guys had to tag in and out kinda took me out of the match. ** 1/2.

Page vs Lethal was..not very good. Heatless match, some major botches, just not a very good match at all, was hoping for at least a fine showing. That's like Adam Page for ya. **.

Juice and Zack though absolutely killed it. This is kind of the stuff that I can't wait to see from both guys in the G1. Great story and just a very enjoyable undercard sprint. WELL DONE. *** 3/4.

This 8 man tag was just not very good, let's put it this way. Before this show I was sure Tana would at least carry Mr. Ass to a solid 7 minute match, now I am afraid this is going to be just really bad. **.

War Machine vs G.O.D was really cool, but for fuck's sake, why did you need Chase Owens in there? Especially if GOD lost. The crowd didn't know who he was, they didn't know what to make of it and this ruined a potential great match for me. Surprising title change, but hey, at least Rowe and Hanson are champs again. Now please let's move on to something different, maybe Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi, or Evil and Sanada, or Briscoes? I will even take Nagata and Nakanishi, Just please, give War Machine at least like 2 successful defences. *** 1/4.

Ishii vs Naito felt like a first legit New Japan match on the show. This was just fucking great, those guys never fail to deliver together. There were some minor botches, but I still enjoyed the hell out of this. Oh and yeah, they are going to top this in the G1. **** 1/4.

Omega vs Elgin was fucking awesome, but come on, why did they boo Elgin all the time? Like, I get it, everybody loved Omega, not a shocker at all, but this is not Doc Gallows or Mondai Ryu he is facing, alright? It's fucking Big Mike. Anyway, those guys killed it, MoTN for sure. Not quite top tier MOTYC level, but still just an excellent match, some crazy nearfalls and a fantastic finishing stretch. Yes, they too are going to deliver a banger in the G1 as well. **** 1/2.

The Main Event delivered. Not a blow-away match, not something I am going to go back and watch again, but a really good match. Okada was in a typical big match Okada mood, and Cody actually impressed me here. I was one of those few people who thought there is no chance in hell Okada is dropping the belt here, but that Cody rainmaker nearfall...yeah, that was scary, huh. Anyway, the idea of this match grew on me in the last week or so, I really think this was a good idea for the Main Event here. Omega-Cody seems like a lock now..but when? Not a WK worthy match, that is definitely Omega-Ibushi. *** 3/4 for this.

Would it surprise ya all if Cody costs Omega the win against Lethal or in the final?


First half of the show was, aside of ZSJ/Juice, just solid, a little bit underwhelming. The last 3 matches though were excellent, and overall I can't say a bad thing about this show from the in-ring standpoint, since everything that had to deliver delivered. Hopefully there are no production issues tonight, no JR this time thankfully and I am hoping for Omega/ZSJ final, this has MOTYC potential written all over it.

[Tigerkinney]

Doubt I'll say anything revalatory here but may as well give my general thoughts....

Overall the show did end up feeling like a solid B-Level PPV, like one of the New Beginning or Destruction shows- where you'll probably have a few really good matches but also a fair amount of solid but unspectacular filler.

First off the bad.....

The production issues won't leave a good impression with those curious with the New Japan product- the sort of fan who might have ordered the PPV after seeing a couple of hyped matches on a video sharing platform of their preference. It won't make a jot of difference to New Japan World subscribing hardcore's like myself but it is the sort of thing that could turn away those used to the slickness of WWE. Usually New Japan big-show production is just as professional but unfortunately those in charge of production duties for this show were not on their game. Lets hope they smooth things out for Night 2.

In the words of Good Ol' J.R himself, his commentary was 'Bowling Shoe Ugly'. I usually stick with the Japanese commentary, as I find Kevin Kelly to be about as engaging as a seminar on concrete, but I thought for these shows I'd listen to the English. No Kelly this time, which is a good thing but J.R's often times embarrasing performance wasn't an upgrade- as other's have said Kelly at the very least does his research properly. Ross came across as an out of touch senile old duffer throughout the show. I'll give him some credit and say that he did improve for the main event matches- that featured names he had become familiar with but confusing EVIL for BUSHI and Zack Sabre Jr. for Will Ospreay are frankly embarrasing mistakes.

Finally on the bad side, Billy Gunn was not good at all here- to the point that he actually looked unsafe to work with. I just hope Tanahashi gets through his match in one piece. I think we can forget about Tanahashi even dragging a 'good' match out of Gunn. Anything above a Dud tonight will be a success.

Onto the good stuff- The main event though, not another MOTYC for Okada, was another very good title defence in what will surely go down in history as a legendary title run. Credit where credit is due, Cody stepped up and delived his best performance in a New Japan ring.

No surprise that Kenny vs Elgin and Naito vs Ishii- delivered the two best matches of the night but I also thought that ZSJ and Juice Robinson had a very good match together in the tournament. I have great confidence in Juice have an excellent G-1 and hopefully this is the Sabre we see in the G-1, rather than the one whose matches have been tainted by Suzukigun nonsense.